VERSION 5 SOUND FORGE SPECTRALAYERS PRO English language manual Contents 1 What's new 1 2 Introduction 3 2.1 System requirements......................................... 5 3 Getting Started 6 4 The Interface 10 4.1 The Toolbars.............................................. 11 4.1.1 Command .......................................... 11 4.1.2 Transport ........................................... 11 4.1.3 The Tools toolbar....................................... 12 4.1.4 The Tool Settings toolbar................................... 21 4.2 Waveform Display and overview bar ................................. 21 4.3 Spectral Display............................................ 22 4.4 Panels................................................. 22 4.4.1 The Display panel ...................................... 22 4.4.2 The History panel ...................................... 23 4.4.3 The Channels panel ..................................... 24 4.4.4 The Layers panel....................................... 24 4.5 Preferences.............................................. 27 4.5.1 Device ............................................ 27 4.5.2 Interface ........................................... 27 4.5.3 Display ............................................ 28 4.5.4 System ............................................ 29 4.5.5 Shortcuts........................................... 30 4.6 Saving and recalling layouts...................................... 30 CONTENTS ii 5 Working with projects 32 5.1 Creating a new project ........................................ 32 5.2 Opening a project or an audio file .................................. 32 5.3 Importing an audio file as a layer................................... 33 5.4 Recording to a layer ......................................... 33 5.5 Adding a new layer .......................................... 33 5.6 Grouping layers............................................ 33 5.7 Inserting time ............................................. 34 5.8 Deleting time ............................................. 34 5.9 Merging layers ............................................ 35 5.10 Resampling a project ......................................... 35 5.11 Reinterpreting a project........................................ 35 5.12 Exporting your mix .......................................... 36 5.13 Editing with Sound Forge Pro..................................... 36 5.14 Editing with Pro Tools......................................... 37 5.15 Saving a project............................................ 38 5.16 Saving and renaming a project .................................... 38 6 Viewing and selecting spectral data 39 6.1 Measuring spectral data........................................ 41 6.2 Positioning the cursor......................................... 43 6.3 Selecting spectral data ........................................ 43 6.4 Adjusting a selection ......................................... 48 7 Modifying spectral data 50 7.1 Erasing spectral data ......................................... 50 7.2 Cloning spectral data ......................................... 50 7.3 Drawing a frequency ......................................... 51 7.4 Drawing noise............................................. 51 CONTENTS iii 8 Processing spectral data 52 8.1 Generating silence .......................................... 52 8.2 Generating a tone........................................... 52 8.3 Generating noise ........................................... 53 8.4 Adjusting the volume of a selection.................................. 53 8.5 Mixing channels............................................ 53 8.6 Reducing noise ............................................ 54 8.7 Reducing reverb ........................................... 54 8.8 Spectral casting and spectral molding ................................ 55 9 Working with metadata 58 9.1 Editing information .......................................... 58 9.2 Editing markers and regions ..................................... 58 10 Tips 60 10.1 Shortcuts ............................................... 60 10.2 Integration with DAWs and Samplers................................. 62 10.3 Editing in an external editor...................................... 66 10.4 Command line options......................................... 66 11 Changelog 68 Index 69 Chapter 1 What's new New features in version 5.0 User Interface & Workflow • reworked interface and look • new hybrid slider-value input controls • all tools are now fully WYSIWYG • selection displays a custom pattern for better visibility • direct wave sample editing Spectrogram Display • new composite view mode (preview of all layers merged) with user-selectable color-mapping • spectrogram resolution setting now applies both to time and frequency • fine-tunable spectrogram settings • cubic filtering (smoother rendering) • new sharpness setting Actions & Tools • new heal action • new frequency repair tool • new spectral markers tool • new transient selection tool 2 • new stats tool • frequency and harmonics selection tool tracking improved This documentation is protected by copyright law. No part of this publication may be reproduced in the form of copies, microfilms or other processes, or transmitted into a language used for machines, especially data processing machines, without the express written consent of the publisher. MAGIX, ACID, ACIDized, ACIDplanet.com, ACIDplanet, the ACIDplanet logo, ACID XMC, CD Architect, DVD Ar- chitect, Sound Forge and Vegas are the trademarks or registered trademarks of MAGIX Software GmbH. ASIO & VST are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All other trademarks or regis- tered trademarks are the property of their respective owners in the United States and other countries. For more information, see http://www.magix-audio.com/de/eula/ Errors and changes to the contents as well as program modifications reserved. Chapter 2 Introduction Spectral... In most audio applications, audio is displayed as a waveform that represents audio in the time domain (amplitude vs. time): This representation shows the global power of sound; however it doesn't show what's inside the sound. Spectral data represents sound in the frequency domain. You can think of it like a musical score: the higher the peaks, the higher the tones; the stronger the peaks, the stronger the tones. Everything can be analyzed with this representation: music, voice, even noise. Spectral analysis uses discrete sampling: you have to choose between time and frequency accuracy. A Sampling Size of 2048 or 4096 is usually good for most situations (with a file sampled at 44,100 Hz or 48,000 Hz). Feel free to change the size on the fly as the accuracy of your work highly depends on it. You should also play with the multiplier and gamma settings to see the small peak details in the spectral view. ...Layers The layer system allows you to refine your work extensively in a nondestructive way, thanks to the additive and subtractive nature of layer mixing. If you cut and paste data from one layer to a different layer, you add the layers nondestructively: the sum of the two layers is identical to the source data, but you have full control over the mute/volume state of the data you extracted to that new layer. If you copy and paste data from one layer to a different layer, and then invert the phase of that new layer, you subtract the layers nondestructively: the first layer still contain all the original data, and the new, inverted layer acts to subtract the original data. When this negative layer is muted, you get your original data back. The volume of this inverted layer controls how much you want to mask from the original data. 4 Processes and Tools Processes work the same way they do in usual audio applications: you select an area, and the process is applied to the whole area. For more information, see Processing spectral data The difference with SpectraLayers is that you can select not only time but also frequency areas, so the process is only applied to a certain range of frequencies. The processes are also different by nature, because they are designed to use spectral data instead of raw audio data, so the purpose and range is not the same as usual audio processes. Tools work the same way they do in paint applications: they are local to the mouse position and allow you to work on specific frequencies. For more information, see The Tools toolbar • Navigation tools allows the user to navigate the spectrogram. • Transform tools allows the user to shift layers in time or to rescale them. • Measure tools give the user specific information about spectral data. For more information, see Measuring spectral data • Selection tools allow the user to select spectral data. For more information, see Selecting spectral data • Modification tools allow the user to retouch spectral data. For more information, see Modifying spectral data • Draw tools generate spectral data from scratch. For more information, see Drawing a frequency See also System requirements 2.1 System requirements 5 2.1 System requirements Windows • A 64-bit operating system: Microsoft® Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 • Dual-core processor (quad-core processor recommended) • 4 GB RAM • 4 GB of free hard disk space (for temporary files) • OpenGL 3.3 compatible graphics card • 1280x720 display resolution • Windows-compatible audio hardware macOS • OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) • Dual-core processor (quad-core processor recommended)